The present invention relates to a data storage device. In particular, the present invention relates to a dynamically symmetric pivot housing or actuator.
Disc drives are well-known in the industry. Disc drives are used to store digital information on rigid discs coated with a magnetizable material in a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks. Discs are mounted on a spindle motor which rotates the discs for operation. Information is read from or written to the disc surface via transducers carried on a slider. The slider is supported relative to a disc surface via a suspension connected to an actuator or E-block. The suspension is connected to an actuator arm of the actuator and includes a load beam for supplying a preload force to the slider. A gimbal spring flexibly couples the slider relative to the load beam. The lower surface of the slider defines an bearing surface. Rotation of discs via the spindle motor interacts with the bearing surface of the slider to create a hydrodynamic bearing.
The slider is positioned relative to various concentric data tracks via operation of the actuator. Operation of the hydrodynamic bearing and actuator introduce vibration to suspension components S supporting the head. Excitation or vibration of heads can cause lateral or off-track movement of the head in certain resonance modes which reduces operating efficiency of the disc drive. Disc drive operating speeds are increasing as well as track density. Increased operating speeds increase excitation or resonance of the suspension components supporting the heads. Increased drive density exacerbates lateral or off-track movement of the supported heads induced by excitation or resonance of the suspension components. The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and it offers advantages over the prior art.
The present invention relates to a dynamically symmetric actuator to reduce off-track movement of the heads for read/write operations. In one embodiment of a dynamically symmetric actuator, the actuator arm includes a thickness step designed to balance stiffness of inner and outer portions of the actuator arm. The dynamically symmetric actuator of the present invention limits torsional or twisting motion of the actuator arm to reduce off-track motion to reduce read/write errors.